Very perceptive to note that many people use food as a substitute for other things that are missing in their life, such as relationships, a sense of accomplishment/purpose, etc.

As Fraiser Crane once asked a caller who was struggling with food issues, "What part of you is not being fed?"

However, there is an aspect that was not mentioned - which is high fructose corn syrup, added to many processed food products. The is a direct parallel between the use HFC and obesity rates. Here's a graph from Diabetes Daily :